McCalman surveyed hundreds of people from four private schools in Kew, a middle-class Melbourne suburb, and conducted many interviews. The bulk of the book is based on the lives of the men and women who started their first year of secondary schooling in 1934. Their lives were torn apart by WWII and when the men returned, families settled quietly in the suburbs. In the fifties religion and the church were central to these people's lives and by the1990s their importance had not altered. There were sad lives: the women widowed in their twenties and thirties and prevented by their religious fervour from marrying again; the men who came back damaged from the war and struggled to maintain their place in the middle class; the nun who lost her faith early, but remained in the order for over forty years. Teachers wrote reports describing girls as hopeless; some of these women returned to school when their children were older, gained degrees and succeeded in demanding jobs. Some men aspired to a white collar job with a pension at the end, but others were braver including the diplomat who became a clergyman. The sad people and the brave people were interesting. The rest? Worthwhile to read about how they got this sense of entitlement. Left-leaning readers can spit chips and conservatives can nod sagely.
Excellent book, particularly if you're from Melbourne. ( )